Paul Morrissey, cult film director and early Andy Warhol His collaborator died. He was 86 years old.

Morrissey’s archivist Michael Chaiken said: Hollywood Reporter The filmmaker died at Lenox Hill Hospital in the early morning hours of October 28. New York City after a bout with pneumonia. As an auteur, his most famous films include: Meat, Garbage, Heat, Flesh for Frankenstein and classic B picture Blood for Dracula, Starring Joe Dallesandro.

Morrissey’s films also included classics such as: Women in Rebellion and 1980’s New York City trilogy Forty Two, Mixed Blood And Bensonhurst’s Spike. But it was his early relationship with pop artist Andy Warhol that helped establish Morrissey as a director and kept his cult status alive throughout his career.

The two artists first met in 1965, and Morrissey was signed to handle Warhol’s promotion and film production at The Factory under a contract until 1973. 1965 is among their first cinematic collaborations, filled with colorful characters such as drug addicts and street hustlers. Space And My Hustler, a year later with him The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony of Sound And San Diego Surfing And Lone Rangers In 1968.

Morrissey has become defensive in recent years over Warhol receiving so much praise for his film collaborations at The Factory.

“When talking about Warhol films, don’t say ‘Warhol films’. Mine movies! Are you that stupid to talk to people like that? I have to live this for fifty years. Everything I do, Warhol did or he did with me. Forget about it. She was clumsy, anorexic, illiterate, autistic, and had Asperger’s; He hasn’t done anything in his life. He kind of walked like a zombie and it paid off in the long run. But I can’t accept this shitty reference. What would you say if you could get past this?” Morrissey told Sam Weinberg during an interview: Bright Lights Film Magazine February 2020.

One of the typical movie posters for their joint films featured Warhol being given high billing to attract the attention of moviegoers – something like “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein” or “Andy Warhol’s Dracula” with “A Film by Paul Morrissey” just below.

Morrissey was more generous in this regard. Interview conducted in early March 1975 Oui He and Jonathan Rosenbaum allowed Warhol to at least operate the camera, while he made the remaining logistical and creative decisions. “I understood what Andy was doing and helped him do it. Andy usually operated the camera. I was always doing the lights, organizing the film, bringing the actors together, telling them what to do. We never told players to just be themselves. This is bullshit,” Morrissey insisted.

Morrissey’s other contributions to Warhol’s cult status included helping discover and manage The Velvet Underground and co-founding Interview magazine. Born in New York on February 23, 1938, Morrissey graduated from Fordham Preparatory School in 1955 and from Fordham University four years later.

After serving in the US army, Morrissey moved to the East Village in the late 1960s and opened Exit Gallery. He showed underground films there Brian De PalmaHis debut was short, Icarus, and made his first films.

After his collaboration with Warhol ended in 1975, Morrissey briefly moved to Los Angeles and began financing and producing his own films. Among them was a studio film. Hound of the Baskervilles, A Sherlock Holmes parody and final film starring Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, News from Nowhere In 2010.